After her grandmother is murdered, Amy Steadman returns from New York to her family’s farm, located southeast of Raleigh, to help sort through her grandmother’s belongings. As Amy digs through her family history she tries to understand not just her grandmother’s mysterious death, but also the death of her mother, who committed suicide when Amy was three. The relationships among the members of this large family are at the heart of the story, especially as Amy begins to believe that her grandmother’s murderer may be a relative.